... with open eyes, and a generous heart, there is awe 'round many a corner ...

Thursday, 15 December 2011

Calling a spade a digging implement

This is an art installation - or a sculpture - in the forecourt of the Museum of Sydney in Bridge Street in the city, which is on the site of the original government house in the 1790s. Created by Peter Collins in 2010, it is called 'Tides Turn'. Made of eucalypt sticks and steel mesh, the artist declares it to be 'a wave that escaped the ocean, dressed up in sticks and went to shore looking for blood'. One of the exhibits in the Musuem at the moment is on the history of surfing in Australia.

To my mind, the resemblance to an indigenous gunyah, or humpy, is overwhelming. These were the shelters that the original inhabitants of this land used for shelter at the time of European settlement. Also, the way the sticks have been woven together resemble the creation of the panels for brushwood fencing, one of the ways that people nowadays use to section off their particular parcel of land. I find this sculpture discombobulating. There is an undercurrent that is concerning. a wolf in sheep's clothing.

14 comments:

I like this sculpture a lot! And I really like all of the angles that you shot it at. That really makes me feel as if I am there. I would talk my kids into letting me get a shot of them cowering under the wave as if it was about to crash down on them. - That quote from the artist made me laugh! "...looking for blood..." How delightfully fairytale-wicked.